Apple is No. 2 in India, Or Perhaps No. 6

How well is Apple doing compared to its competition in India? It depends how you look at it.

Apple Inc. is clearly gaining traction in India as iPhone sales ramp up here. But just how well is it doing compared to the competition? It depends how you look at it.

According to data from research firm IDC, the Cupertino, Calif.-technology giant vaulted ahead of several other smartphone makers in the October to December quarter to become the No. 2 player in the Indian market based on “value.” To measure a firm’s value, IDC factors in the price of its phones in India and how many it ships. So for this metric, it helps Apple that its iPhones, priced starting at around $489 in India, are relatively costly.

Per IDC’s value metric, Apple had a 15.6% share of the Indian smartphone market in the final quarter of 2012. It moved ahead of Sony, which had a 9.4% share, as well as Nokia and Blackberry Samsung Electronics Ltd., whose Android-based phones have been a huge hit in India, was the No. 1 company by value with a 38.8% market share.

The rankings are different when one looks purely at the number of smartphones each company is shipping to India. That is a popular way to gauge a mobile phone company’s growth. Using that metric, Apple stood in sixth place in the October to December quarter, according to IDC, behind market leader Samsung, Micromax Informatics Ltd, Sony, Nokia and United Telelinks’ Karbonn.

An official with Apple declined to comment.

Regardless, the trends are positive for Apple. The company saw a more than three-fold jump in iPhone shipments to India in the fourth quarter.

After languishing in India in recent years, Apple changed its strategy last year, bringing in specialized distribution companies such as Ingram Micro and Redington India to help get its phones to retailers. Previously, iPhones were sold through mobile phone carriers Bharti Airtel and Aircel Ltd., which bundled the handsets with data services. The new approach is proving more successful.

According to data from Singapore-based research firm Canalys, Apple shipped 252,000 iPhones to India between October and December, accounting for 5% of the 5.2 million smartphone shipments to India.

Apple has also shown a willingness to tweak its prices in a market still dominated by low-cost feature phones and thrifty buyers. Apple launched the iPhone 5 in November, coinciding with the festival season in India, and reduced the prices of its older models, which boosted sales. Last month, the company unveiled an initiative that allows customers to buy iPhones in interest-free installments.

Apple’s marketing push is likely to boost iPhone sales in the January to March quarter also, said Manasi Yadav, a senior market analyst at IDC.

But Apple still has a daunting task ahead as it tries to catch up to South Korea’s Samsung, the market leader. Samsung shipped 2.1 million smartphones to India in the last quarter of 2012, giving it a 40% market share, data by Canalys showed.

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